whale of a time

... haha couldn´t resist that!!

Anyway we´re now in Patagonia, where they have "four seasons in one day" (as someone once sang). The 18-hr bus ride was fine in the end, managed to get a decent amount of shut-eye (probably more than Becka, who was surrounded by a symphony of snoring), and watched two films involving John Travolta, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Wild Hogs. We actually enjoyed the latter quite a lot - maybe we were just hysterical by that point...

This is also something to bear in mind on these coaches:






No shit.





Yesterday we went to Peninsula Valdes to try and see some whales - as it turned out, the sun shone, and shedloads of whales came out, which was fortunate as it´s by no means guaranteed, plus this is the last week before the end of whale season, apparently! We were going to stick some video up of them, but that may have to wait till we are somewhere with a faster internet connection.












Following that, a visit to see the elephant seals, and the realisation that not much is better than being an elephant seal (well, if they survive attacks by orcas, of course). They just seem to lollop about on the beach, burping occasionally, ALL DAY LONG. Every so often a couple of them seem like they want to start a ruck with each other, but they run out of energy before they move very far, so it doesn´t ever really get off the ground. As our guide (rather enviously) pointed out, the males also have harems of 40-50 females, so that probably keeps em pretty busy anyway.

Today we had the savage Patagonian wind and rain, and saw young dolphins, which we attempted to take pictures of, but they´re the fastest dolphins in the world so they don´t hang about. And then.. penguins in Punta Tombo!! Nearly half a million of them to be exact. We got close enough to hear them sneeze. And watch them waddling about, going about their hilarious business.

Then on to see the "Welsh" region of Patagonia, and visit the village of Gaiman, which I thought would have a more interesting story behind its name than it actually did. We skipped the "traditional Welsh tea" cos, to be honest, it looked crap, and cost an extortionate 45 pesos.

At the hostel and on the trips we´ve encountered a variety of different nationalities - hungover Germans, moaning French, helpful Basques, Israelis who refuse to believe Becka can´t speak Hebrew, and best of all, the Dominican who works the overnight stint at the hostel, who livens up his 12-hour shift by getting a salsa party for one going in reception, disco lights and all...

PS Brilliantly, there´s been very little mention of Christmas over here so far - that´s one thing we´re not missing about home! Esta noche, Bariloche...